Sara Woodward, MOT, OTR/L, is Occupational Therapist, Puyallup School District, 214 West Main Street, Puyallup, Washington 98371. At the time of this study, she was Graduate Student, School of Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, Washington

Yvonne Swinth, PhD, OTR/L, is Associate Professor, School of Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, Washington. She also is Occupational Therapist, University Place School District, University Place, Washington

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OBJECTIVE. The purpose of this study was to describe the current practices of school-based occupational therapists regarding their use of multisensory modalities and activities in handwriting remediation.

METHOD. A survey was sent to 313 school-based occupational therapist members of the American Occupational Therapy Association who identified themselves as working in a school system as their primary employment setting. Of these, 198 surveys were returned and analyzed descriptively, resulting in a response rate of 63.3%.

RESULTS. More than 130 different multisensory modalities and activities were documented. Twenty-five of these had previously been reported in the literature, the other 114 were documented, by respondents, within the “other” category. Most respondents reported using 5 or more modalities and activities per student, the most frequent being chalk and chalkboard. No consensus among respondents is apparent about the primary sensory systems stimulated by the modalities and activities. No difference in modality and activity use was found on the basis of demographic variables.

CONCLUSION. Overall findings indicate that the breadth of modalities and activities being used is far greater than that currently found in the literature. The results suggest a need for completing studies designed to examine the use and effectiveness of multisensory modalities and activities in handwriting remediation.